Start of a social revolution
The great working men's clubs revolution had started just 60 years ago, and there were long membership waiting lists. Alan Berry, then stationed in Scotland, summarises the news as he found it in the local newspapers in 1949.
HMS Mull of Galloway, March 1949: This week's Gazette has a feature by chief reporter Jim Pennington on a social phenomenon - the rise and rise of the working men's clubs. He has visited Mere Lane Social Club at Armthorpe and Intake Social Club in Doncaster and the story is the same at both - business is booming, membership has reached capacity, and waiting lists are extremely long - in some instances as many as 200 clamour to join.
"It is easier to get behind the Iron Curtain than to become a new member of any working men's club," he writes.
The principal attraction is the social life involving the whole family. Clubs are not limited to the variety of refreshment they can serve, they are not tied to a brewery, the bar opening hours coincide with those at hotels and pubs and, since members are shareholders, there is a feeling of ownership.
The members have not forgotten the brusque treatment they often received from pub landlords who had to limit their supplies to the regulars during the war.
That was not the landlords' fault, but they have changed their habits and stay away from them.
Christmas treats, children's outings for up to 1,000 youngsters, whist for the ladies, darts competitions for the men, and a concert every Sunday with artistes "every bit as good as you'll find on the professional stage" are additional attractions.
Anyone out of work for 12 months is given 10.
Intake was opened in 1931 with 200 members. Maximum today is 700. Bar takings average 1,500 a month, and the yearly turnover is about 19,000. At Mere Lane the turnover exceeds 20,000.
Going underground
Campsall Women's Institute is one year old and to celebrate members chose to visit Askern Colliery for their first outing. After touring the engine house two officials accompanied 12 of them underground. They returned to the surface each carrying a lump of coal as a souvenir. It was a novelty for them since their husbands are mainly farm workers.
Cheap holidays
The Co-op travel agency says Make Belgium Your Holiday this year. Stay in Ostend for 13 12s 6d, for eight days. Fifteen days will set you back 20 10s. This has to be the cheapest foreign holiday.
Karachi journey
Mrs Probert has left Doncaster for Pakistan, a new country formed out of India. She will join her husband Flt Sgt Les Probert who pilots the personal aeroplane of a high Pakistan official. Her daughter Carol, aged two, has gone with her leaving grandma Mrs Dryden at home in Fairfax Road, Intake. The Proberts will live in a bungalow in Karachi.
Working in wood
The amazing Reginald Norton, of Norborough Road, is the subject of a special article this week. He is the woodwork master at Wheatley Boys Modern Secondary School whose sculptures in wood are admired all over the country.
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Latest sport The writer calls Mr Norton's work "poetry in wood - he is as familiar with wood as I am with my pencil".
Scorning all machinery he makes wonderful furniture which will be admired for generations to come. His small figures, which can take as long as 45 hours to complete, are exceptionally detailed; fingernails, lace, hair, the stitches in the hem of a dress are particularly fine.
Mr Norton trained as a pilot during the war. His wife is Marjorie Norton, the novelist.
Support the press
The Gazette quotes a few paragraphs which first appeared in the Daily Express. The writer is not named, but he could well have come from Doncaster.
He says: "The local press deserves full support in every district. It performs many specialised functions that the national newspapers cannot undertake. It is watchdog of local finances, the pillar of the churches, a full record of all the little things that constitute our way of life and the integrity, character and ability of the local journalist is incomparable."
Phew! Somebody loves us, then.
League change
Grandma is distraught and thinks her useful life is coming to an end.
This is because all health services have been nationalised and there is now no need for the Linen League to make and mend bedding etc for Doncaster Infirmary.
The League is now called the Doncaster and District Hospital Comforts League and it will provide extra items for patients, but Grandma Berry's skill sewing and making button holes is no longer required.
Mrs Grant Dalton is president, Mrs Mary Evans our family's doctor's wife is chairman, and Mrs Mason Humble of Regents Square will accept donations. These three public spirited ladies find their names in the newspapers most weeks for many admirable reasons.
TV favourites
Harry Pickering, the wireless dealer in Silver Street, says when television comes perhaps in three years we will have a chance of adding further enjoyment to our leisure hours, "particularly if you let me help you to choose your set”.
He says: “You will still need the radio for lots of other programmes."
The sketch accompanying his advert shows a chap lolling in an armchair, smoking a pipe and looking at both a television and a radio.
Seeing red
If a motorist wants petrol to run his business he can buy his ration of red; leisure and pleasure users are allowed a lesser amount of white. But the red is now so abundant that garage people can't sell all they are allocated.
Drink driving
The LVA - the licensed victuallers' association, ie pub landlords - has been asked to pay special attention to those drinkers they know to be in charge of motor cars to see they don't drink to excess. The appeal was made by Col W St Andrew Warde Aldam, of the West Riding Brewster Sessions at Doncaster.
Going to the polls
All the newspapers suggest we must be ready for a snap general election. All the pundits are looking at what they see as a special situation in Doncaster where all three main parties have chosen prospective candidates.
Cure-all remedy
I see Kompo advertising in every edition these days. Grandad swears by Kompo... "keeps out the cold, for warmth and comfort and protection a teaspoonful in hot water, milk or tea".
It must be good stuff. He never misses a day’s work. Grandma says he oils his bike with it. Owbridges Lung Tonic is another cure-all without which no self respecting parent should be.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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